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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Loong Siew, post: 4101010, member: 75799&quot;]A very intriguing and very rare coin of the Crusades. Silver dirham. Acre (Akka) mint. AD1251. </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;Unlike other Islamic coins, this coin is inscribed not the Islamic kalimah and calendar but rather purely Christian inscriptions in Arabic. Also a prominent Cross is in the middle of the obverse. For type, this is a choice specimen with largely legible well struck characters within flan. </p><p><br /></p><p>Minted only in 1 year, they come also in cross-less and circled cross variants. It is not only a relic of the crusades but also a very rare instance where Arabic was used on such a strong Christian context in coinage. </p><p><br /></p><p>The inscriptions are: </p><p>&nbsp;Obverse from top to bottom: </p><p>“Allah Wahid Huwa” - One God He Is </p><p>&nbsp;“al-Imam wahid&quot; - One Faith </p><p>&quot;al-ma&#039;mudiyya wahida&quot; - One Baptism</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;Reverse from top to bottom: </p><p>“al-Ab wa&#039;-Ibn” - The Father and the Son </p><p>&quot;wa&#039;l-Ruh al-Qudus” -And the Holy Spirit </p><p>&quot;ilah Wahid” - One Divinity </p><p><br /></p><p>Given the Crusaders are trying to claim the holy land exclusively for Christian&#039;s, most crusade coins are usually inscribed in Latin except for the Bezant for trading purposes. Hence the use of Arabic which was deemed the language of Saracens the enemy of the Christians were very unusual and possibly due to an early attempt to proselytize the religion amongst the Arab speaking population in Acre. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;Special thanks to my friend Rafae L Suud for his kind inscription of the characters into clearer Arabic for readers.[ATTACH=full]1066198[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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